Training Log Archive: Bash

It's been awhile since I've braved a run with BazingaDog by myself. With his strength and impulsiveness, he's pulled me off my feet a bunch of times and caused a few minor injuries.

But he's six and a half years old now - a middle-aged pooch with a gentle demeanour and a little grey creeping into his muzzle. I knew it wasn't totally safe but I hitched us together with the skijoring harness on him and a belt around my waist, and we went for a run through Palgrave East and West.

I'd call it a success. We had many breaks so he could mark territory or sniff. I saw a few deer that he did not - phew. There was some frenzied sniffing and dashing around the places where the deer had crossed the trail but I managed to keep him from leaping into the forest. There was just one scary moment when an animal was scrabbling in the woods a meter off the trail and B-Dog lunged perpendicular to our path. I screamed his name (literally screamed - like in a horror movie), he stopped and stared at me with concern, and we avoided smashing my head into a tree trunk. It was a win.

Running feels fine. I'd hoped to start back up in early October but even now, it still feels like hill climbing is easier than usual so I guess I haven't lost all my fitness from UTMR. My right Achilles is niggling a bit though, and that's not the usual problem foot.

Event: Star Tracks Mountain Bike Adventure
 

Additional Star Tracks photos are available on the Stars Orienteering public Facebook group. I think you might need to be a member to be tagged in the photos.

The 4th annual Star Tracks Mountain Bike Adventure was a lot of fun. We have a great team of volunteers and an amazing group of racers who don't have any problem with mud.

Over the past month, my involvement with the racing scene has looked like these photos.



Actually, a more accurate photo would show me with a computer on my lap.

For some reason, I seem to have confused "race directing" with "conducting an orchestra".



Thanks, everyone! There's a lot of preparation for Star Tracks but you make race day pretty easy for us. Special congrats to some high achieving Attackpointers: Wokitoki (aka Chad, 2nd overall) 'Bent (3rd overall), Browner (4th overall and 1st woman), Coach LD (1st Female Masters), Team Gally (1st Family) and Leek/St. Louis (2nd Family). FB won our Muddiest Male Racer Award.

Results

Photos by the talented Ilona Dobos

Goose and I arrived at Albion Hills just as the rain began. We split up the Star Tracks controls and headed into the woods on separate routes just before sunset. Luckily, we enjoyed a huge downpour, which meant that no random park visitor was likely to tamper with our flags.

Afterward, Funderstorm hosted a small gathering in her van, Earl. Several Star Tracks racers camped at Albion Hills and "soaked" up the atmosphere tonight. The forecast is wild enough for tomorrow that I wrote the racers and invited them to arrive half an hour earlier than advertised. The craziest weather is forecast to arrive in the afternoon.

Given the trouble we have finding reliable tradespeople out here in the boonies, I can't really complain that the JC Landscaping guys who have been here for the past two weeks are some of the hardest workers I've ever seen. Like most days, their machinery woke me this morning while it was dark out and they were still here at 5 p.m.

Almost done though. Who's coming over for a beer? At the moment, it's BYO chair.

This is cool. Pick a year and find out what words were first used in print that year. Richard and I were married in 1996 - the year that saw the first appearance of: fist bump, big data, smartphone, kiteboarding, cloud computing and senior moment.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-by-first-kno...

Note to self: If I don't run for a month, then even a 9 km run makes my Achilles feel tight the next day. I must never do that again.